GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE officials expect tolls will not only be going up next year, but will rise incrementally every July through 2018.

That's because the district, which has raised tolls since 2008, needs to eat away at its estimated budget deficit.

The district has cut its payroll, eliminated services, raised bus and ferry fares and revamped pension benefits for new workers. But tolls, the lifeblood of the district's operations, aren't keeping up with expenses. Toll revenue largely subsidizes the costs of running the buses and ferries, whose fare boxes fall far short of covering their costs.

It is estimated that buses and ferries reduce commute traffic that crosses the bridge by 25 percent.

Talk of incremental increases is made possible by electronic tolls. Since replacing toll takers with electronics, there's no worry about toll plaza traffic delays involving toll takers having to make change.

That doesn't make toll increases any more palatable.

District officials say they need to keep up with the rising cost of doing business.

As the district Board of Directors approaches the latest toll-increase plan and possible plans for incremental increases, it needs to provide the public — especially those paying tolls — clear justification for raising tolls.

In past years, the district raised tolls to help pay for the seismic retrofit of the 76-year-old span. There was a clear need to get started on that work.

But are there any promises that the tolls will come down when that work is completed, or when the moveable barrier is finished? No.

The public which pays the tolls should have its say in setting the sums well before each bump, whether 25 cents or $1, considered by the bridge board. The district has taken its budget quandary seriously. The number of workers on its payroll has been slashed 24.1 percent over the past decade.

The public also has paid a price in terms of higher tolls and fares and reduced services to transit riders.

It may be a lot easier — thanks to electronics — to raise tolls, but the justification for increases should not shortcut the district's obligation to answer to the public.